The GEF, in partnership with the Montreal Protocol of the Vienna Convention on Ozone Layer Depleting Substances, funds projects that enable the Russian Federation and nations in eastern Europe and central Asia to phase out their use of ozone destroying chemicals. After more than a decade of international cooperation, the concentration of some of these chemicals in the atmosphere has already started to decline.

Between 1991 and 2004, the GEF allocated more than $177 million to projects to phase out ODS and a co-financing of $182 million.